#253 R.P.I. Wake Forest @ #66 R.P.I. Virginia Tech:
ATV coverage: Saturday, 8pm on RAYCOM
Vegas Line: VT-19.5
That is just about as tough of a 45 hour turnaround as you will ever hope to see folks. Go down to Chapel Hill, play your guts out and then get gut-kicked on a decent enough look from long-range 3-point land that just rimmed out. Then mix in two more lame guys and damn. How many more O&M needles can the Seth Greenberg voodoo doll hold?
Just how much drama, how toxic, how viral can one basketball season get? You can bettcah bottom dollar that this is a campaign that Seth will never ever forget for as long as he lives. Sure would be nice to see us nail down at least one get well game instead of nothing less than being the agony of defeat skier on one of the Blacksburg Country Club hills tumbling end over end.
Now we find ourselves in nothing short of a let-down trap game at home vs. a rather pedestrian looking and A.C.C. last place Wake Forest club that is a wounded three up and six down since the month of December began.
Well at least the students are (getting) back and we do have our old friend the Fourm Guide on our side for this one. That helps, and so would a blow-out homecourt win vs. the cellar dweller in Atlantic Coast men’s hoops terms for this particular year.
So let’s take a look at a game that on paper we are supposed to win, that is if we did not leave too much out on the court down on Tobacco Road on Thursday night.
Wake Forest at a Glance:
- 11th in FT% (77.1%)
- 11th in Blocks (5.9)
- 31st in 3-point FG% (39.3%)
- 303rd in Turnover Margin (-3.0)
- 306th in Scoring Defense (74.8 allowed)
Leading the way –although not by much- for the Deacons would be one #0, 6`4“ 175 lb. freshman G, J.T. Tarrell who is first in scoring for Wake with 13.3 per game on average. J.T. expected to be a zone busting long-range bomber off the Deacon’s bench in his first season; instead he is Wake’s leading scorer from the lead-G spot; even though he was recently reassigned to sit beside Coach Jeff Bzdelik on the Deacon bench. Second in scoring and only one-tenth behind (13.2) would be 6`7“ 205 lb. Swing, and Richmond VA native, one #30, Travis MacKie. Travis is yet another t-freshman who was expected to mature slowly off the Deacon bench; yet instead he is starting and logging major minutes in his debut season. Travis came to Wake out of the Commonwealth with a sweet-shooting reputation (28% on threes this year); instead he is surprisingly leading Wake in rebounding at 7.8 boards and is third in blocked shots (1.0). Go fig’ from a kid who did not enjoy a defensive rep’ coming out of high school. Second in rebounding would be #20 Ari Stewart. Ari is a long armed Wing at 6`7“ and 205 lbs in his sophomore year who is pulling down 5.6 boards, netting 11 points and leading the way at 88% from the FT-stripe. Again, yet another skillful medium sized (or smaller) Deacon hoopsters down in Winston Salem; yet wait, there’s more of the same. The Deacon’s nearly have two more 6`4“ clone lead-G’s who can both shoot from range. One is #2 Gary “G-money” Clark (no Redskin relation) a 200 lb. senior from Florida and the other is #11 C.J. Harris a 6`3“ 185 lb. sophomore from Georgia. Harris shoots 35% from range and leads Wake in assists at 4 per game, whereas Clark only nets 64% of his three’s! Yes, that is not a typo, he is 28 of 44 from beyond the arc this season; his range is the gym itself, if he is in the gym, he is open. Obviously, Mr Clark is the best marksman in the A.C.C. at this time, hands down, no contest.
Starting Center #33 Carson Desrosiers is a 6`11“ beanpole 210 lb. t-freshman all the way from New Hampshire who can send a shot back; even if his offense game is still playing catch-up. 1.8 blocks per game with only 3 points and 4 boards. Dood is long in the paint and other than that his favored face-up game is still developing. Leading the Dec’s in blocks is #40 and legit 7` 230 lb. junior Ty “sky” Walker who is sending back an amazing 3.2 shots per contest in barely 20 minutes of P.T. off the Deacon bench. Newly eligible (Georgetown transfer) #25 junior P-F Nikita Merscheriakov, is a Belarus native who is adding size to the Deacon front-line with his 6`8“ and 219 chiseled lbs. Nikita is getting 5 points and 4 boards to go with 37% from range as he plays his way into shape. #23 P-F Melvin Tabb a 6`8“ 225 lb. freshman provides front-court minutes of the Deacon pine.
G, Tony Chennault a freshman 6`2“ 195 lb. Philly Pt.G who was netting 6 points, dropping 3 dimes an getting to 2 boards in very limited playing time is out for eight weeks with a foot injury. This is significant as Tony was the one lifeline to something of a true-Pt.G. that Coach Bzdelik enjoyed this year. Everyone else is a Shooting-G or a lead-G playing out of position at the One spot. (hence: the porous Wake Forest Turnover Margin above)
Did you notice a couple of things there? How about the fact that these Deacon’s are engaging in something of a wholesale youth movement with only two upperclassmen (one senior one junior) making any real contributions this year. Such hearkens the use of the word “inexperienced” when describing this year’s Wake basketball squad. Also note that this is not a real physical Deacon club, kinda long in spots and pretty lean looking all around. Wake has also been waxed in both A.C.C. games thus far this year; a 21 point L up at State and a 19 point home L vs. Maryland in their most recent contest. That’s not good; nor is getting pawned by V.C.U., Richmond and Winthrop. I suppose beating Iowa helps a little and yet this Wake hoops team has the look and feel of one that will be staying home for the post-season come March; along with Georgia Tech. That’s what happens in Atlantic Coast terms when you return the least scoring and the least rebounding from last year in the entire 12 team A.C.C.
The vaunted Fourm Guide of Graham Houston fame is pretty lopsided itself; it posits no less than a 20 point VT blow-out victory. Such does not seem entirely far fetched when you see that Wake is allowing 88 points on 48% shooting as a visitor in your house this season. Yes, this is the classical textbook let-down trap game for VT; and yet, yes, this is a very impoverished looking Wake hoops squad. I had heard that Wake was way down this season and after studying Wake I can only report that the whispers -for a change- were true.
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I supposed there is a chance that Wake could go three-point crazy and bomb away from the outside while blocking enough shots vs. a truly snake-bit VT hoops team to pull the upsetting road win. We did not get any healthier down on Chapel Hill and practice (preparation) time for Wake will be limited. Wake does enjoy a +1 advantage in prepping for us post-Maryland whom they ran against on Wednesday night. Still yet, this is just not a good Wake Forest men’s basketball team this year; and I am having a tough time conjuring an even remotely plausible upset mechanism with Wake traveling to play us in our very own Cassell. Sure looks like VT wins. A fully locked and loaded VT prolly does approach the 20 point blow-out threshold as forecast by the Fourm Guide; though I’ll elect to go a bit south of that as I foresee a flat ho-hum kinda VT hoops team that is basically going through the O&M motions before class starts after the Dr. King Holiday early next week. I see a sloppy game early on and then I see VT waking up and turning it on late to win by double digits more and less.
Virginia Tech=74, Wake Forest=63
“LET’S GO!”
“HOKIES!”
b’street